Motivation In The Workplace

Wal-Mart's Decision Making

In today's society, many organizations continue to be transformed by the continually changing workplace. "Change is taking place rapidly and management is being forced to make decisions that will dictate the success or failure of its organization" (McCall & Kaplan, 1990). The retail giant, Wal-Mart is going through some major changes in its organizational culture and structure due to some unpleasant events that has come to light in the past few years. The organization has faced, and is still facing, a significant amount of controversy: high employee turnover, countless discrimination charges, sexual harassment lawsuits, lack of diversity, and numerous federal lawsuits. Fortunately, Wal-Mart is apparently willing to embrace change and shows its willingness to make the company successful at all costs.

Decision-making is an important part in every organization. Harris (1998) defines decision making as: "the study of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of the decision maker, and the process of sufficiently reducing uncertainty and doubt about alternatives that affects the organization's success. Decision-making is critical to the survival of the Wal-Mart organization. Wal-Mart's management is forced to access the needs of the organization to ensure a continuously improved workplace in order to maintain that competitive edge. This organization's management has to make decisions concerning new business opportunities, products, customers, suppliers, markets and technical developments. Wal-Mart's managers are continuously making critical decisions, sometimes quickly. This decision-making process involves solving problems and making correct decisions that is valued throughout the organization.

Research has shown that within the Wal-Mart organization, decisions must be made quickly in regards to changes in the workplace, changes in market conditions, corporate profits, or corporate performances. Since Wal-Mart is a global organization, its decisions, therefore, must not only be politically correct, but must be ones that make the